University Of Kansas Student Follows In Chris Martin's Footsteps

Who’s the hottest potato in this year’s crop of vivacious vegetarians in PETA’s popular annual contest?

The results are in, and after tallying more than 250,000 votes, super-fit 19-year-old Salina native Ricky House has been crowned the male "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive."

Ricky, a student at the University of Kansas, faced stiff competition from other entrants across Canada and the U.S. Everybody knows that vegetarians’ healthy diets help keep them youthful and slim, and after joining the ranks of the reigning celebrity winners, American Idol’s Carrie Underwood and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Ricky is proving that you don’t have to be famous to take advantage of this beauty secret.Ricky often travels to Latin America, where he does volunteer medical work in poor communities. He’s a big fan of Burger King’s BK Veggie and Subway’s Veggie Delight, and he also enjoys soccer and playing music. Ricky cites great vegetarian peacemakers Mahatma Gandhi and His Holiness the Dalai Lama as inspirations for his switch to a more humane, healthy diet. Along with his new title, Ricky will receive a $50 gift certificate from nonleather shoe retailer MooShoes, cologne from Jason Natural Cosmetics, a box of vegan chocolate truffles from ChocolateDecadence.com, a box of Boca "chicken" patties, coupons for Johnny Rockets veggie burgers, and more. He will also be featured in PETA’s widely circulated magazine Animal Times.

So what turns on North America’s sexiest vegetarian? "To me, there’s nothing sexier than a woman with lots of passion and compassion," says Ricky. "Going vegetarian means that you care about yourself and you care about the world around you, and to me, that’s a real turn-on."

"Ricky is a winner in more ways than one," says PETA Vegan Campaign Manager Reannon Peterson. "He’s made the smart move to a vegetarian diet and helped animals and his health—being sexy is just one more reward!"

For more information, please visit GoVeg.com.